There Is A Battle Going On Right Now Between Mattel and The NRA Over Whether Or Not Thomas The Tank Engine - The Cartoon About Trains - Needs More Train Diversity

THE HILL – The National Rifle Association (NRA) criticized the children’s television show “Thomas & Friends” for diversifying its characters by depicting its cast in Ku Klux Klan hoods.

In the segment, which aired Friday, NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch criticized the show for adding new characters, including a train named Nia from Kenya.

Loesch argued that the show doesn’t need ethnic diversity, saying that the show “literally has no ethnicities because they’re trains.”

“I mean, I’m looking at this picture and I’m really, really struggling to understand how in the world there isn’t any diversity in any of this,” she said on “Relentless,” the NRA TV program she hosts. The image was then put on the screen, depicting three trains in KKK hoods and burning train tracks in the background.

“It was the white hoods,” Loesch said. “And the burning train tracks. OK, fine, fair point. Fair. I get it. Thomas the Tank Engine has been a blight on race relations for far too long. Clearly this is overdue. Right?”

Mattel, which owns the Thomas the Tank Engine brand, told The New York Times that it has “always been a priority” for company to promote inclusivity.

Folks, it’s a Bizarro World out here, and we’re only just getting warmed up.   Because the NRA just put up a graphic of Thomas The Tank Engine and his Tank Engine buddies in Klan hoods on a televised segment protesting the belief that trains have race, as a battle erupts between the National Rifle Association and a toy company over how cartoon trains identify.  Incredible.

So what they were doing with the picture was being sarcastic about the whole notion that trains are the problem with race relations.  Pretty obvious with the tone and eye roll in the video.  One could argue that maybe that was a bit far though.  In the interest of good taste.

Regardless, just take a minute to appreciate how “2018” this story is.

1) Thomas The Tank Engine added a Kenyan train named Nia to try and show that even cartoons are progressive.

2) Thomas the Tank Engine announced the new cartoon train character in a joint statement with the United Nations.

2) The NRA took so much offense to Nia the Kenyan train they took the time to photoshop white hoods onto the cartoon trains riding down on-fire cartoon train tracks on a televised segment.

3) Mattel – the Fortune 500 company with a presence in 40 countries and territories that sells products in more than 150 countries – issued an official statement on the whole situation to the New York Times.

4) Mainstream publications and politics blogs assign their best reporters to the battle brewing about the social construct of cartoon trains.

What. A. Time. To. Be. Alive.

To quote Allen Iverson – “trains?  We’re talkin’ ’bout cartoon trains?”